We took a local bus to take us from Nazca to the town of Ica, the journey through the desert was very picturesque and we even saw some of the Nazca lines. When we arrived at Ica bus station we took a taxi to Huacachina (pro. wacacheena). Huacachina is in the Atacama Desert and it only has a population of 115 people. It is a desert oasis surrounded by huge sand dunes. 5 minutes into the taxi ride from Ica we saw the first view of these sand dunes. It is hard ...

We read up on how to get to Peru from Arica and by far the easiest way to do this was to take a taxi from the bus station and the driver would take us across the boarder into the Peruvian boarder town of Tacna. We packed our bags and turned up at the bus station, we walked towards the international sign and a taxi driver asked us if we were going to Tacna. We said yes and he ushered us into an office with an old lady sat behind a desk with a typewrite on. She ...

Iquique to Arica was a long journey but a little boy in the seat in front of us on the bus kept us entertained. He was about 4 years old and kept popping his head over the seat with a red nose and dark sunglasses on. He must have done it about 20 times and each time Gem found it more funny, to the point where she had tears rolling down her face! When we arrived at the bus station we knew the hostel we wanted to stay in was too far away to walk so we were looki...

We arrived in Iquique at the start of the weekend and checked into an International Hostel called Backpackers. The people working there were lovely and made us feel at home straight away. We signed up for a Paella and Sangria night and met some of the fellow travellers who were staying there. That night after a few games of Uno we had learnt four colours in spanish and numbers 1 to 9, not bad for one night! We helped cook the Paella and helped when no one els...

The bus journey from Santiago to La Serena was very scenic, unlike the deserts in Australia the deserts here have cacti growing everywhere, like something out of a western movie. The drive took us up the coast so most of the time we could see the sea out of the window. By the time we arrived at the bus station in La Serena it was getting dark and Matt took the map to direct us to the hostel we wanted to stay in. 2 hours later and in the pitch black we decided ...